FIFA said on Wednesday, Jan. 14 that it has received more than 500 million ticket requests for the 2026 World Cup, which will be hosted jointly by Canada, Mexico and the United States this summer.

Per FIFA, an average of 15 million ticket requests were made each day from when the 33-day World Cup ticket application window opened on Dec. 11 until its closure on Jan. 13. FIFA boasts that the ticket demand sets ‘a new benchmark for demand in the history of world sport.’

‘Half a billion ticket requests in just over a month is more than demand – it’s a global statement. On behalf of FIFA, I would like to thank and congratulate football fans everywhere for this extraordinary response,’ FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in a statement released by the organization.

Aside from the three host nations, the highest number of World Cup ticket applications came from residents in Germany, England, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, Argentina and Colombia.

The ticketing update also included fascinating data for which games are the most requested. These are the top five most-coveted 2026 World Cup matches, according to FIFA:

1. Colombia vs. Portugal in Miami, Saturday, June 27
2. Mexico vs. South Korea in Guadalajara, Mexico, Thursday, June 18
3. Tournament final in East Rutherford, N.J., Sunday, July 19
4. Mexico vs. South Africa, the tournament opener in Mexico City, Thursday, June 11
5. Round of 32 match in Toronto, Thursday, July 2

The full 104-match schedule for the 2026 World Cup — which will feature 48 teams for the first time — was set during the draw on Dec. 5, with 16 cities in three countries hosting matches.

The ticket process for the upcoming World Cup has had its detractors. Soccer fans around the globe have lodged their complaints about the high prices for tickets. Even U.S. national teamer Tim Weah voiced his concern about the high costs to get into games.

‘It is too expensive,’ Weah said. ‘Football should still be enjoyed by everyone. It is the most popular sport. This World Cup will be good, but it will be more of a show.

‘I am just a bit disappointed by the ticket prices. Lots of real fans will miss matches.’

In an effort to make some reasonably priced options available, FIFA provided a selected number of tickets — ‘supporter entry tier’ tickets — to national federations of the participating countries for them to distribute to loyal fans who have previously attended their nations’ matches.

SACRAMENTO, CA — New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson left Wednesday’s game against the Sacramento Kings after tweaking his ankle.

Brunson rolled his ankle on a non-contact play during the first quarter against the Kings.

He was sizing up Kings rookie Maxime Raynaud and as Brunson got into his dribble package − a hesitation, between the legs dribble − and looked to make his move, he rolled his ankle and fell on the ball before passing it to a teammate.

Brunson limped to the locker room after exiting the game. He did not return, the Knicks ruling him out with a right ankle injury.

Game recap

Sacramento jumped out to a double-digit lead early in the game and maintained it through the first quarter behind 10 points each from Precious Achiuwa, Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan.

The Kings led 32-17 after the first period.

Sacramento maintained its lead going into the second half. The Kings led 56-42 at halftime after a LaVine 3-pointer with three seconds left. Knicks guard Josh Hart made a layup as the buzzer sounded.

Sacramento continued to pour it on in the third quarter. Achiuwa continued to dominate with his effort and energy. He had nine rebounds and two steals and two blocks. He added 17 points for the Kings as he helped to build a 20-point lead.

Sacramento won 112-101.

Dallas Mavericks rookie star Cooper Flagg looked to be in considerable pain as he limped to the locker room after appearing to roll his ankle during the first half of Wednesday’s home game against the Denver Nuggets.

Flagg was defending Denver’s Peyton Watson, moving laterally to his left when he rolled his ankle. He shuffled back to the locker room and it appeared that Flagg’s evening might be done.

But the top pick of the 2025 NBA Draft reemerged and was back on the court before the first half was even over.

When the second half started, though, Flagg was not on the court and the Mavericks announced that he would not return due to a left ankle sprain.

Flagg finished with six points on 3-for-9 shooting and added a rebound and assist. He played 15 minutes.

Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said the team ‘decided to hold (Flagg out) for the second half,’ according to DLLS Sports’ Ron Harrod Jr. Kidd noted that Flagg also had twisted his ankle in the Mavericks’ last game on Monday.

Kidd did not know if Flagg would play on Thursday when the Mavericks take on the Utah Jazz.

An NCAA Tournament for women’s flag football is closer to becoming a reality.

In Washington, D.C., on Wednesday at the annual NCAA Convention, the Division I cabinet approved the addition of flag football to the Emerging Sports for Women program. This comes as several schools across the NCAA landscape have added flag football as a women’s varsity sport in recent years. The sport will make its Olympic debut in 2028.

The NCAA recommended adding flag football to its Emerging Sports for Women program last February. The program, which started in 1994, has had success in converting sports like rowing, ice hockey, water polo, bowling and beach volleyball into varsity women’s sports across the NCAA. Most recently, women’s wrestling was granted widespread varsity status and will hold the sport’s first sanctioned NCAA championship this year in Coralville, Iowa.

The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) announced it will launch a women’s flag football league with a $1 million investment from the Jets through the Betty Wold Johnson Foundation. The league will begin play in next month. 

A handful of Division I schools have launched or announced plans to start a varsity women’s flag football team. That group includes Alabama State, Long Island, Mercyhurst, Mount St. Mary’s, UT Arlington and Cal Poly. Many others in the Division II and III ranks also have varsity teams.

Last year, the Division III Atlantic East Conference held a full varsity season of women’s flag football capped by a conference championship, becoming the first NCAA league to do so. Jacqie McWilliams-Parker — commissioner of the CIAA, a Division II HBCU conference — said last year that she hopes to have flag football as a varsity sport in the league during the 2026-27 academic year. Division I commissioners like Sherika Montgomery of the Big South and Jim Phillips of the ACC have said on the record that they’re paying attention to the rise of women’s flag football.

While women’s flag football now has status in the Emerging Sports for Women program, there are still milestones the sport needs to meet before reaching championship status and an NCAA Tournament.

According to data published by the NCAA last year, about 65 schools had flag football teams at the varsity or club level. But to be considered for championship status at least 40 NCAA programs will need to sponsor women’s flag football as a varsity sport within 10 years. Those 40 teams would also have to meet minimums in games played and player participation.

The NFL has estimated about 20 million people across 100 countries are playing flag football or some variation of it. In the U.S., the National Sporting Goods Association said from 2022 to 2023, girls participating in flag football increased by 55% to 1.6 million.

Heading toward the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, the NFL is signaling it is heavily invested in seeing the sport grow. It ran commercials promoting flag football during the 2025 Super Bowl and has had an active hand in helping colleges start teams. The NFL has also pivoted to flag football at the Pro Bowl, with 4.7 million people tuning in to last year’s game, a figure that was in the same ballpark as the NBA All-Star Game.

Spurned by Alex Bregman, the Boston Red Sox pivoted to a different offseason plan, agreeing to terms with left-hander Ranger Suárez on a five-year, $130 million contract on Jan. 14.

A baseball official with direct knowledge of the deal confirmed to USA TODAY Sports that Suárez and the Red Sox are in agreement. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not yet been finalized.

Suárez, 30, was a clutch regular season and playoff performer for the Philadelphia Phillies, earning an All-Star nod in 2024 and posting a 3.38 career ERA while starting 119 career games.

Suárez played key roles in helping the wild card Phillies eliminate the division champion Atlanta Braves in both 2022 and 2023, and along with Framber Valdez was the most desirable left-handed starter on the market.

In Boston, he provides the No. 2 starter the club professed to desire since the start of winter, aligning behind fellow lefty and Cy Young Award runner-up Garrett Crochet and alongside trade acquisition Sonny Gray.

His signing pushes talented right-hander Brayan Bello to the No. 4 slot, though Gray’s pending free agency after this season ensures the Red Sox have strong pitching depth in coming years. The Red Sox also acquired right-hander Johan Oviedo from Pittsburgh last month, and he figures to get the first crack at the No. 5 starter job; additionally, the club saw encouraging signs from rookies Payton Tolle and Connelly Early after their debuts late last season.

They may need to be a pitching-centric squad in 2026; Bregman’s defection to the Chicago Cubs leaves the lineup, for now, minus a massive bat. The club is expected to continue pursuing help at both second and third base.

Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese and Las Vegas Aces forward A’ja Wilson are taking their talents to the big screen.

Reese and Wilson will make cameos in the animated movie, ‘GOAT’, produced by NBA star Stephen Curry. The film features a star-studded cast, including the Golden State Warriors guard, ‘Stranger Things’ star Caleb McLaughlin, actress Gabrielle Union, musicians Jelly Roll and Jennifer Hudson and more.

‘GOAT’ follows the journey of a small goat, Will, played by McLaughlin, who has big sports dreams. The tiny animal gets an opportunity to play ‘roarball’ at the pro level, which has some of the fastest and fiercest players globally.

“It has something in there for every generation,” Curry told USA TODAY in November. “We’re bringing something that hopefully is inspiring, something that brings family together, and something that’s uplifting to a lot of different people in the audience that can find their best selves through one of the characters.”

‘GOAT’ hits theatres February 13.

Notable changes are coming to men’s and women’s college basketball.

The NCAA announced on Wednesday, Jan. 14 that the Division I Cabinet approved the immediate implementation of a 15-day transfer window in women’s and men’s basketball that will begin the day following both sports’ respective NCAA Tournament championship games.

The NCAA Women’s Tournament championship will take place on Sunday, April 5, while the men’s title game will take place on Monday, April 6, this season. Previously, the portal opened in March, during the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments. The change in the transfer portal window was recommended in November by the Men’s and Women’s Basketball Oversight Committees.

There is also a change to the transfer window that opens for players following a head coaching change.

For players impacted by a head coaching change, they will be able to enter the transfer portal during a 15-day period that will open five days after the new head coach is hired or publicly announced. Should a hire not happen or be announced within 30 days of the previous head coach’s departure, a 15-day window will open then as well.

This is the second notable change to the transfer portal window for college athletics, as college football is in a new 15-day transfer window after the season. College football’s transfer window has a soft close on Friday, Jan. 16 — as it will remain open five additional days after the CFP Championship game for Indiana and Miami — after opening on Friday, Jan. 2.

The news release also mentioned that midyear transfers won’t be eligible to compete at a different school ‘if they enrolled at an NCAA school during the first academic term, regardless of whether they competed there.’

The other change announced on Wednesday came from the Division I Business Session and impacts the performance units and funds for college basketball with the NCAA Tournament. In other words, these are the financial rewards teams receive for their performances after reaching their respective Final Four.

‘As a conference which does not have the benefit of national football revenue but has had a school playing in either the Men’s or Women’s Final Four seven times in the last nine years that the tournament has been conducted, the Big East is very grateful for this change,’ Big East commissioner Val Ackerman said in a statement. ‘We’re very glad that every team that advances to the championship game from here on out will benefit from this logical adjustment to our national revenue distribution policy.’

Added NCAA senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt: ‘Today’s vote emphasizes the importance of rewarding schools who invest in the development of their basketball programs and reach not just the Final Four but ultimately achieve the pinnacle of success in this sport by competing for and winning the national championship.’

The units earned during the tournaments are paid out to conferences on a rolling basis, per the NCAA. For men’s basketball, units are distributed over six years, while in women’s basketball, which began implementing units last year, the units are distributed over three years.

‘The expansion of these funds also continues to increase financial support to members during this pivotal time in college sports in which student-athletes are receiving unprecedented benefits from their schools,’ Gavitt continued.

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Chicago Sky guard Courtney Vandersloot’s resume includes two WNBA championships, five All-Star selections and first-team All-WNBA nods. In the WNBA offseason, she’s adding actress to the list.

The 36-year-old guard will make a guest star appearance as herself on NBC’s ‘Chicago Med’ on a Wednesday, Jan. 21, episode titled ‘Frost on Fire,’ the show announced on social media Wednesday.

The medical drama’s X account shared four photos from the episode, including a shot of Vandersloot gifting her No. 22 Sky jersey to a young patient at the fictional Gaffney Chicago Medical Center. Another photo shows Vandersloot posing with Dr. Dean Archer (Steven Weber) and Dr. John Frost (Darren Barnet).

Chicago is a special place for Vandersloot. The Kent, Washington, native was drafted third overall out of Gonzaga by the Chicago Sky in the 2011 WNBA Draft. Vandersloot played 12 season in Chicago (2011-2022) and helped the franchise win a WNBA title in 2022, before picking up another championship in 2024 during her two-year stint with the New York Liberty (2023-24).

Vandersloot returned to the Sky in 2025, but was limited to seven games after tearing the ACL in her right knee.

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